Conservative activist Leigh Wambsganss has spent the last five years building a reputation as a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Texas schools. In 2021, the former news anchor and Miss Oklahoma finalist launched a campaign to inform their local school board about a proposal to address racism in the majority-white school district. (The plan, which included a “diversity council” to help make the school more inclusive, was created after a viral video captured white students yelling the n-word at a party.)
Wambsganss raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of a slate of school board candidates who replaced the entire sitting board and blocked the DEI plan. She was hired by Patriot Mobile Action, the Christian cell phone company’s political action committee, the following year as the PAC sought to replicate its success. recruitment and financing the candidacies of far-right school board members across the state of Texas.
Steve Bannon was among those who praised the model as one Republicans should follow across the country. But that might have been bad advice.
On Saturday, Wambsganss lost his second straight race to Democrats. Taylor Rehmet for a state Senate seat in deep red Tarrant County, Texas. The second round took place after Rehmet won a three-way showdown last November. This is a district that Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024; This weekend, Rehmet, who will be the first Democrat to represent the district in 35 years, won by 14 votes. And he won by running on a platform that put public education funding at its center.
“Right now public education is really under attack,” Rehmet said. rolling stone two days after his surprise victory. He focused his campaign on issues that local parents told him they cared about: the Texas Education Agency’s takeover of the Fort Worth school district and a school voucher “scam” that diverts funds from public schools to charter schools.
“We need to stay local and stay out of outrage campaigns; we don’t need to politicize schools,” Rehmet said. “School elections are non-partisan. They should remain that way… We need to just make sure we focus on what the community needs. What about schools right now? They need help.”
Rehmet is not a father, unless we count his “baby,” a French bulldog named Samson. The 33-year-old grew up the only child of an aircraft mechanic and a beautician in Garland, Texas, before enlisting in the Air Force, where he spent four years stationed in North Dakota, “turning wrenches on B-52 bombers.” He returned to Texas, where he eventually got a job as a machinist for Lockheed Martin. He joined the union and later rose to become president of that union’s local and state chapter, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.
Running those union leadership races, he said, wasn’t all that different from the Senate race. “People who are frustrated and angry? They always vote,” Rehmet said. “Whether it’s a union election or a statewide election or an election like this in the ninth district of Texas. People use their vote as their voice.”
Republicans are feeling that anger. After losing the initial race in November, the party worked hard to boost Wambsganss’ candidacy ahead of the runoff. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urged Republicans to “please, please, please, please” in a radio appearance last week, and Trump issued a similar call on Truth Social, imploring his Texas supporters: “PLEASE MAKE A PLAN TO GO OUT AND VOTE FOR LEIGH WAMBSGANSS IN THE JANUARY 31 SPECIAL SECURITY ELECTION!” (Trump distanced himself from Wambsganss while speaking to reporters after his loss on Sunday. “I’m not involved in that. That’s a local Texas race,” Trump said.)
That support wasn’t just lip service either: Wambsganss outraised and outspent Rehmet nearly 10 to one: His campaign reported spending $2.4 million between July and January, compared to $242,173 spent by Rehmet’s campaign.
His surprise may have been a surprise nationally, but it wasn’t one internally.
“My disorganized team (it was all local people, I didn’t hire any outside consultants, anything like that) we had our numbers, we felt good about them,” Rehmet said. “You can’t always measure it precisely, but you feel it every time you walk up to a door, every time you have a phone conversation with an undecided voter, and that gave me confidence that I had the community’s trust.”
Rehmet’s victory continues a national winning streak for Democrats at the state legislature level: The party flipped 25 seats held by Republicans in 2025, while Republicans failed to win a single seat held by a Democrat. The party broke a supermajority in Mississippi, won a supermajority in the New Jersey Assembly, won a Democratic trifecta in Virginia and held on to its one-seat majority in the Minnesota Senate. Democrats seem determined to compete in Texas this year: for the first time this year, the party is presenting candidates in each electoral line at the state and federal level.
Rehmet will serve out the remainder of Republican Kelly Hancock’s term, which will end in January, but it is unlikely he will have the opportunity to vote or introduce legislation: The legislature will not be in session for the rest of the year. An election, to be held in November, will decide who will be sworn in when the new session begins in January 2027 (both Rehmet and Wambsganss are also running in that race).
It will certainly be a race with more participation, but Rehmet feels good about his chances. “I won in November and I won the other day,” Rehmet said. rolling stone. “I would say that what I’m doing is working, and I know it’s working because that’s what I would like to see from a politician every time I’m in the shop, working, turning wrenches.”
